Photograph taken in Honduras, CA and contributed
by Fernando Carranza
Looking
Through Casement ELT Window
Data-Driven
Teaching:
A Shift in
Blended Learning Education
By Prof. Jonathan
Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
School of English
Faculty
of Social Sciences
Universidad
Latina de Costa Rica
Saturday, October 15,
2016
Post 300
For several years now, blended
teaching in language learning is an integral part of many programs in
universities or at language schools around the world. That is, with the
incorporation of learning management systems (LMSs) for language development
and mastery, teachers are now in much control of what students are doing away
from the classroom. Though the LMSs has come to substitute the traditional
print workbook of yesteryear, data now coming from the platforms are not really
being used to plan instruction and learning focused on the students. A shift in
blended learning education has not yet been accomplished, and it is a real need
nowadays.
Let’s Understand Data-Driven
Teaching (DDT)
“Data analysis can provide a snapshot
of what students know, what they should know, and what can be done to meet
their academic needs. With appropriate analysis and interpretation of data,
educators can make informed decisions that positively affect student outcomes” (Lewis, Madison-Harris, & Times, n.d.) . In terms of language
teaching and learning, DDT must then be focused on relevant areas of
instruction for learners; DDT does not focus on teacher-centered instruction,
but quite the opposite. Its main reason to exist is to help educators to create
activities that guarantee student-centeredness in language training. While
using data to guide one’s teaching, planning is then targeted to strengthen
student weak, developing areas and not to just cover course textbook content
due to the suggested pacing for a course.
Instructor-Led Online Hours do Count
in DDT
Are language instructors really aiming
at using DDT while teaching a course? Based on my experience with LMS
administration and usage mostly recorded in memoranda, this has not
materialized yet in my language teaching contexts, at the university and the language
school where I work. The LMS is being loosely used by instructors and
colleagues to basically assign content on the platform to somehow practice what
is covered in F2F class sessions. Somehow the LMSs continue being used as
eWorkbooks rather than a system to collect data for the strengthening of one’s
teaching to develop student performance weak areas. The effect of using the
platform as an eWorkbook is that the time spent online is not consolidating
student learning, which is meant to be the reason why LMSs exist. As a
consequence, planning needs to be connected to what data on the platform are telling
instructors to guide them in class teaching in a blended learning scenario. The
one single imperative that is being left out in this new educational scenario
is the analysis of statistical reports to create a connection between the
classroom, the platform, and back to the classroom. And part of this imperative
is to use this blended learning instruction cycle to make instructor-led hours
count for student language development.
Why LMS Work Instead of Paper-Based
Homework
If my typical, traditional student is
like yours, print workbooks for homework are not exactly a priority for them. A
typical learner of mine is that one that shows up for class with not homework
on his/her workbook, either because they simply forgot or because s/he could
not find the time to complete the assignment. Consequently, learning
consolidation may not be achieved when this kind of learner decides that
homework is not important for him/her due to their other social or educational
endeavors. Moreover, for the teacher –when the workbook’s exercises are checked
orally, there is no way to know what areas are giving learners a hard time;
something that can be easily done now with the statistical reports that an LMS
can produce for instructors. To sum up, language teachers with no DDT
orientation as part of their planning and teaching fail in LMS correct use. The
right usage of the LMS explains why it is essential to use statistical
information to use the platform instead of a print workbook due to the amount
of information that can be derived from LMS’s reports.
The Need for Making LMS
Instructor-Led Hours Count
A mind shift is needed on how LMS work
is perceived by students and orientation is needed from instructors. Student independent
work is quite good for self-regulated individuals, and many people take their
language learning seriously, whether that is a language or something else they
are interested in. For more traditional students, the LMS guided hours can be
very fruitful if DDT is present. The idea that platform exercises just need to
be completed to comply with work for a course is not exactly the expected
behavior a real interested individual demonstrates in language learning. That
is why it is necessary make the LMS instructor-led hours count for language
mastery and performance. Online hours, as it can be seen, need to trigger data
to drive the blended learning cycle to practice the areas that must be
practiced, and not a random exercise a teacher arbitrarily decides is the right
one to join class activities with platform tasks and then back to the classroom
exercises. Though the LMS work may good for some individuals, those students
who already know the subject-matter by heart do not need to review what they have
already mastered; the platform hours need to be guided in such a way that
learners just work on the areas they need to continue developing.
The Blended Cycle and DDT
To really make the LMS instructor-led
hours count, the blended cycle needs to be based on data-driven teaching. At
this point in language blended education, the instructor is practicing content
in class to improve student performance in the four skills. Then, practice
activities to continue building on class content is assigned as a consolidation
task (group of exercises). Then, learners, guided by the teacher, retake the
same content to demonstrate the mastery of it in class. Data produced by the
LMS reports generated by the platform is analyzed prior the retaking of content
for demonstration; this is done to create a lesson plan that is initially based
on the LMS trouble with activities learners had and that the data show.
Whatever is going to be (re)practiced in class is to help learners who show
difficulty in their LMS work understand whatever they have not been able to
grasp 100%.
Measurably Better
“If teachers deploy blended learning
‘properly’, students’ results are measurably better” (Baber, 2013) .
Why is it that we are still striving to get better results with students when
we have information right at our fingertips by clicking here or there in the
LMS? As Baber (2013) cleverly states it, “a key element of ‘proper’ deployment
is that teachers regularly log into the learning management system, view
students’ performance, and then adapt what they do in the classroom.” But based
on my reflective journaling and personal memoranda, I can barely see any of
this Baber is talking about actually happening in any of my two workplaces.
Once again, LMSs are being used as eWorkbooks that will not yield the same kind
of result similar to the one we could be getting by simply logging into the
platform from time to time to see what the whole group as a whole is having
trouble with, and from that point on continue building the language they need
to develop, but with a more constructivist orientation in our planning process
and blended teaching practices.
“If teachers plough on with their
pre-determined curriculum regardless of the students’ strengths and weaknesses
as visible from their performance date –they may as well go back to old-fashioned
homework on paper” (Baber, 2013) . Yes, it is true
that we have course outlines to follow as well as a coursebook that needs to be
covered, but without understanding learners’ “strengths and weaknesses” we are
just contemplating what really is happening outside through a casement window;
while there are teaching professionals deploying blended learning practices
properly and there are students learning a language proficiently, what are we
waiting for to log into the system(s) we are currently using and learn from
what our students are striving to learn to give them a hand and the correct
kind of blended activities to guide them through their construction of the
inter-language to speak English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) as it is described in
the CEFR.
References
Baber, E. (2013, May-June). Data-driven
teaching: the next big thing? Voices, 232.
Lewis, D., Madison-Harris, R., & Times, C. (n.d.). Using
Data to Guide Instruction and Improve Student Learning. Obtenido de SEDL.Org: http://www.sedl.org/pubs/sedl-letter/v22n02/using-data.html
Saturday, October 15, 2016
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